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The Eagles got off to a shaky start against Tonga, and Marco Barnard had a
particularly suspect opening few minutes, as he bounced a poor pass to Matt
Hawkins in attack that led to a turnover and committed a silly penalty
shortly thereafter. However, Tonga had an even worse start, committing
numerous penalties at the breakdown and handling errors.

Tonga had possession deep in their own territory when Zach Test
counterrucked effectively, getting the pill back in USA’s hands. A phase
later, he’d pick up from the base of a ruck and dot down the first Eagle
try. The conversion was missed.

Tonga came back on the offensive, with Sione Vaiomounga making an elusive
run and offloading to Etueni Siua, who was able to scoot past an
overpursuing Justin Boyd for the rebuttal score. Etimoni Paea hit the
conversion, putting Tonga up 7-5.

Lack of discipline continued to plague Tonga, as after corraling Zach Test
on USA’s next possession, a Tongan player was pinged for not releasing.
Colin Hawley quick tapped, despite Tonga’s scrumhalf trying to slow down
the toe through, and raced 50-plus meters for the go-ahead score, which was
unconverted, giving the Eagles a 10-7 halftime advantage.

Barnard and Boyd, both of whom didn’t have a great first half, combined on
a nice play to exted the Eagle lead just after intermission. Tonga had the
ball but were scrambling, and Boyd made a nice one-on-one tackle that
forced a mishandle, which Barnard scooped up and carried in for a try.
Shalom Suniula converted, making it 17-7 in USA’s favor.

Once the Eagles regained possession deep in their own end, Miles Craigwell,
who subbed on for Boyd, carried the ball into touch before crossing the
midway line. Tonga took a quick lineout in for a rebuttal try, pulling to
within two at 17-12.

On the ensuing possession, Suniula penetrated the Tongan defense with a
nifty scamper and offloaded inside to a streaking Paul Emerick, who also
came on as a second-half replacement. Emerick touched down his
32nd World Series try, converted by Suniula, to give the Eagles
the 24-12 win.

After falling earlier in the day to Fiji and Australia, USA moves to the
Bowl Quarterfinal, where they’ll face Japan for the third time in two
tournaments. Japan knocked the Eagles out of Bowl contention last week in
Hong Kong after the Eagles beat them in pool play.